Non-stop refuse collection container

ABSTRACT

A device designed to be mounted on the side of a garbage pick-up vehicle and adapted to engage and invert refuse containers to transfer the contents thereof into the bed of said vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, allowing the vehicle to collect garbage placed along a roadway in a non-stop operation without manual handling.

United States Patent Stragier 1 1 Dec. 2, 1975 15 1 NON-STOP REFUSECOLLECTION 3,016,157 I/1962 Brisson 214/302 CONTAINER 3,529,743 9/1970Ehrbar ct a1 206/519 [76] Inventor: Marcel G. Stragier, 8201 MontereyWay, Scottsdale, Ariz. 85251 [22] Filed: July 22, 1974 [21] App]. No.:490,515

Related U.S. Application Data [60] Division of Ser. No. 364,708, May 29,1973, Pat. No. 3,878,953, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 199,813,Nov. 17, I971, abandoned, which is a division of Ser. No. 15,421, March2, 1970, abandoned.

[52] US. Cl. 214/313; 206/519; 214/302; 220/264 [51] Int. Cl. B65F 3/02[58] Field of Search 214/302, 303, 304, 313, 214/147 G; 294/69, 73;220/263, 264; 206/519 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS2,412,325 12/1946 Devine ct a1 206/519 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS1,031,463 6/1953 France ..2I4/303 299,965 7/1954 Switzerland ..2I4/303Primary ExaminerR0bert .I. Spar Assistant ExaminerLawrence J. Oresky[57] ABSTRACT A device designed to be mounted on the side of a garbagepick-up vehicle and adapted to engage and invert refuse containers totransfer the contents thereof into the bed of said vehicle while thevehicle is in motion, allowing the vehicle to collect garbage placedalong a roadway in a non-stop operation without manual hand1ing 4Claims, 9 Drawing Figures US. Patent Dec. '2, 1975. Sheet 1 of33,923,174

us. Patent Dec.2,1975 sheetzofs- 3,923,174

U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1975 Sheet 3 of3 3,923,174

NON-STOP REFUSE COLLECTION CONTAINER CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATEDAPPLICATIONS This is a division of co-pending application Ser. No.364,708, filed May 29, 1973, now US. Pat. No. 3,878,953 issued Apr. 22,1975 which in turn is a continuation of Ser. No. 199,813 filed Nov. 17,1971, now abandoned, which is in turn a division of Ser. No. 15,421 fled Mar. 2, 1970, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Refuse collection through industrial andresidential areas has in the past been an extremely inefficient processrequiring a substantial amount of manual handling of refuse containers.The most common method used in the prior art to transfer refuse into arefuse collection vehicle has been the manual lifting and inverting ofthe refuse containers above a bin or opening located on the vehicle.These vehicles often incorporate mechanisms for moving the refuse fromthis bin to theinterior of the body of the vehicle and tightlycompacting the refuse within the vehicle. Various systems have also beendeveloped for mechanically lifting therefuse containers and invertingthem above the collection bin on the vehicle. Each of these prior artmechanisms, however, required stopping the vehicle and generallyrequired the manual insertion of the portable refuse container onto thelifting mechanism of the vehicle and manual removal of the refusecontainers from the vehicle after the refuse has been transferred.Therefore, even with these improvements, the prior art vehicles werelimited to a slow progression along a roadway where the portablecontainers were located and often required personnel in addition to thevehicle driver for manually manipulating the portable containers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention, on the otherhand, is directed toward an apparatus and process which totallyautomates the transfer of refuse from refuse containers to a refusecollection vehicle, eliminating all manual manipulation of thecontainers. The equipment requires no personnel escept a vehicle driverwho directs the vehicle along the roadway adjacent to the refusecontainers. The equipment, which is designed to be attached to commonside-loading refuse collection vehicles, automatically engages thecontainers and, by circulating these containers around a track on theside of the vehicle, inverts the containers above the refuse collectionbin on the vehicle and then replaces the containers along side theroadway, all of these operations occurring while the vehicle is inmotion.

These and other advantages of the present invention are best describedin reference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an overall side elevation view of the refuse collectionvehicle operating on a roadway along the side of which portable refusecontainers are placed.

FIG. 2 is a detailed perspective view of the apparatus which is attachedto the side of the vehicle shown in FIG. 1 and designed for manipulatingthe portable refuse containers.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 taken alongthe lines of 33, but with the refuse receiving arm rotated inward toface the vehicle, for ease of illustration.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the arm rotating mechanism shown in FIG. 3taken along the line 44.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the cart which supports the container engagingarm situated in the supporting track shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a prospective view of this cart within the track to furtherdetail the structure thereof.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the means for coupling the containerengaging arm to the cart shown in FIG. 5 and is taken along lines 77 ofFIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is an elevation view of the container designed to be engaged bythe apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and showing the position of one of thearms of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 as it engages the container.

FIG. 9 is an elevation view of a container after engagement by the armof FIG. 2 and showing the apparatus by which said container is inverted.The inverted container is shown in dashed lines in this figure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, the preferredembodiment of the present invention is designed to be mounted in avertical plane at the side of a refuse collection vehicle 10 which isadapted to receiving refuse in a receiving bin 12 which is locatedbetween the cab 14 and the truck body 16. The receiving bin 12 isadapted to receiving refuse which is dumped therein from containers suchas the portable containers 18. Advantageously, a transfer means such asthe blade 20 shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1 activated by a hydrauliccylinder 22, may be utilized to transfer refuse from the receiving bin12 to the interior of the body 16 of the vehicle 10. A driver operatesthe vehicle from the cab 14 and therefore the apparatus isadvantageously mounted so that the forward portions thereof are adjacentthe cab 14 and may be visually monitored by the driver.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the major subassemblies of the apparatuswill be described. A track 24 is situated in a vertical plane along theside of the vehicle 10 and is formed generally in the shape of atrapezoid having a forward inclined leg 24a, an upper horizontal leg24b, a rear inclined leg 24c, and a lower horizontal leg 24d, each ofthese legs being connected to the adjacent legs by curved cornersections. Four container engaging means 26a, 26b, 26c and 26d areattached to the track 24 and designed to be driven around thetrapezoidal track 24 in unison. These container engaging means 26athrough 26d are spaced equidistant along the track 24 and are shown inFIG. 2 in positions 27a through 27d respectively along that path of thetrack. Each of the container engaging means 26 includes a U-shaped arm28a through 28d which is designed to receive a portable container 18 asthe vehicle 10 is driven adjacent to the container 18.

The structure of each of the container engaging means 26a through 26d isidentical and therefore the following discussion of the containerengaging means 260 in reference to FIGS. 3 through 6 is representativeof each of the container engaging means 26a through 26d. The containerengaging means 26b includes a U- shaped arm 28b which is identical withthe U-shaped arms 28a, 0 and d, although only a portion of this U-shaped arm 28b is shown for convenience of illustration. The containerengaging means 26c includes a cart 30 which comprises a bed 32 on whichare rotatably mounted a pair of axles 34 and 35, said axles carrying attheir extremities a pair of truncated conical wheels 36 through 39 whichare designed to run within the track 24, which track includes twoV-shaped sections 40 and 42, one leg of which is connected to a crossmember 44. The cart 30 will therefore run within the track 24 and themotion of the cart 30 will be defined by the path of the track 24. Thecart 30 is additionally connected to a chain 46 which is utilized todrive the cart 30 around the track 24. Supported from the cart 30 is aclevice 48 which extends perpendicular to the plane of the cart 30. Thisclevice is drilled to support a pin 50 on which is rotatably mounted abushing 52 in which a supporting arm 54 is in turn rotatably mounted.The arm 54 can therefore rotate about one axis within the bushing 52 andabout a perpendicular axis about the pin 50. The latter motion, i.e. themotion about the pin 50, is limited by a stop 56 which is mounted on thecart 30 and which abuts the outside of the bushing 52.

Attached to the outer extremity of the arm 54 are three radius arms 58,60 and 62. Each of these arms carries a perpendicular axle not shown inFIG. 3 on which is rotatably mounted a wheel 64, 66 and 68.

These wheels are adapted to rotate about an axle which v is attached tothe arms 58 through 62 about an axis parallel to the axis of the bushing52. Each of these wheels 64 through 68 has an arcuate groove 70 in itsouter surface. This groove designed to engage guides as described below.Rigidly attached to the arm 54 and extending at an angle therefrom is anarm 72 which carries at its outer extremity a bearing 74 in which isrotatably mounted a vertical drop arm 76, this arm 76 being thereforerotatable in an axis which is perpendicular to both the axis of thebushing 52 and the axis of the pin 50. Rigidly mounted to the drop arm76 is a U- shaped container receiving member 78 which is shown in FIG. 3in section through a line separating the arms of the U. Attached to oneof the arms of the U-shaped member 78 is a vertical extension member 80which carries at its upper extremity a container top engaging means 82and at its lower extremity a container side engaging means 84.

In order to control the rotation of the drop arm 76 within the bearing74, a ratchet mechanism 86 and a drive mechanism 88 is utilized. Theratchet mechanism, as best seen in FIG. 4, includes a ratchet 90 and aspring driven Pawl 92. The ratchet 90 has a circular surface except fortwo detent positions, one of which serves to maintain the U-shaped arm78 so that the opening of the U is in the direction of travel of thevehicle 10. The second detent position holds the U-shaped arm 78 in aposition rotated 180 so that the arm 78 has its opening facing the rearof the vehicle 10. The driving means 88 includes a gear 94 which isdriven by two rack gears 96 and 98 as shown in FIG. 2. Each of thesegears 96 and 98 is designed to rotate the pinion gear 94 to drive achain 100 which in turn drives a sprocket 102 through 180. This sprocket102 is rigidly attached to the drop arm 76 and therefore rotates thedrop arm 76 through 180 between successive detent positions of theratchet mechanism 86 each time one of the racks 96 and 98 is adjacentthe pinion gear 94.

Referring specifically to FIG. 2, a series of guides are shown which areintended to engage the rollers 64 through 68 to maintain the properrotary position of the arm 54 within the bushing 52. It will be notedfrom FIGS. 3, 5 and 6 that the rollers 64 and 68 are in the same plane,while the roller 66 is in a parallel plane further removed from thebushing 52. The functioning of each of guides shown in FIG. 2 willtherefore be explained. Beginning first with a guide 104 adjacent therear trapezoidal leg 240, it can be seen that, as the cart 30 proceedsdown this portion of the track 24, the weight of the U-shaped arm tendsto rotate the arm 54 counterclockwise within the bushing 52. The guide104 is positioned in the plane such that it will engage the rollers 66,and this engagement will limit counterclockwise rotation of the arm 54so that the U-shaped arm 28b rests in a horizontal plane. As the cartsupporting the arm 54 proceeds down the leg 240, a position will bereached at which the rollers 64 and 68 will engage another guide 106 andthe roller 66 will disengage the guide 104. The engagement of therollers 64 and 68 with the guide 106 will maintain the U-shaped arm in ahorizontal plane. As the cart 30 proceeds along the lower horizontal leg24d of the track 24, the pinion gear 94 proceeds past the rack gear 98to rotate the U- shaped arm to a position as shown at 28c with theopening of the U-shaped arm facing in the direction of progress of thevehicle. The cart 30 will proceed along the leg 24d of the track 24until it reaches the forward leg 24a at which point the rollers 64 and68 disengage from the guide 106 and the roller 66 becomes engaged with aguide 108. Since the weight of the U-shaped arm 28d is now ahead of thebushing 52, the arm 54 tends to rotate in a clockwise direction withinthe bushing 52. The engagement of the roller 66 with the guide 108limits this clockwise rotation to maintain the U-shaped arm 28d in ahorizontal plane. The cart 30 proceeds along the leg 24a of the track 24until it reaches the leg 24b of the track 24, at which time the roller66 becomes disengaged from the guide 108 and the rollers 64 and 68become on two sides within a tubular guide member 110. This tubularguide member 110 serves not only to limit rotation of the arm 54 withinthe bushing 52, but also to raise the arm 54 about the pin 50, thereforecontrolling motion about this second axis. By so guiding the arm 28aabout the pin 50, the guide 1 10 rotates the U-shaped arm 28a about theaxis of the leg 24b of the track 24 so that the U-shaped arm 28 isinverted and positioned behind the plane of the track 24. This is theposition at which the container 18 which is maintained within theU-shaped arm 28a is inverted so that the refuse contained therein willdrop into the receiving bin 12 of the vehicle 10. As the cart 30proceeds further along the leg 24b, the guide 110 rotates the arm 54about the pin 50 to return the U-shaped arm 28 to its normal position infront of the plane of the track 24. As the cart proceeds still furtheralong the leg 24b, the pinion gear 94 engages with the rack gear 96 torotate the U-shaped arm 28 so that it opens toward the rear of thevehicle 10. As will be explained below, the rotation of the drop arm 76within the bearing 74 by the action of the rack gears 96 and 98 on thepinion gear 94, serves to allow the U-shaped arms such as the arm 28d ofFIG. 2 which is at the forward leg 24a of the track 24 to engage andlift portable refuse containers, while the U-shaped arm which is at therear leg 24c of the track 24 is rotated to allow disengagement of thearm, such as the arm 28b, from the portable refuse container 18 as thevehicle 10 proceeds along the roadway.

Motion of each of the arms 28a through 28d is intermittent and iscontrolled by a motor (not shown) which drives the chain 46 around thetrack 24. At each successive intermittent motion, each of the U-shapedarms 28a through 28d moves to the next successive position 27a through27d along the track as shown in FIG. 2 and comes to rest in thatposition. However, as the arm which is in the position 27d engages acontainer, this containerwilloperate alever arm 112 which will begin theintermittent operation of the motor to translate each of the U-shapedarms 28a through 28d one quarter of the way around thetrack 24 to the'next position. This operation allows the vehicle to pick up portablerefuse containers 18=which are not evenly spaced along the roadway, andalso allows the arm which is in position 27a to maintain the portablecontainer 18in an inverted position over the refuse bin 12 for a periodof time.

Since it is often necessary to jolt the container when it is in itsinverted position within the U-shaped arm, such as the arm 28a in FIG.2, the guide 110 is preferably formed so that it abruptly inverts theU-shaped arm 28a as the cart 30 is driven to its final intermittentposition. This is accomplished by making the guiding surfaces of theguide 110 sufficiently abrupt to rapidly rotate the arm 54 about the pin50, as shown in FIG. 3.

In order to maintain the arm 54 in a horizontal axis while the cart 30is proceeding along the forward and rear trapezoidal legs 24a and 24c ofthe track 24, the stop 56 as shown in FIG. 3-5 is incorporated on thecart 30 so that the bushing 52 will abut the stop 56. As can be seen inFIG. 2, when the cart is inverted as it proceeds along the leg 24d ofthe track 24, both of the rollers 64 and 68 are engaged with the guide106, and this engagement alone serves to maintain the arm 54 along ahorizontal axis.

Referring specifically to FIG. 7, a U-shaped pin 114 is utilized tomaintain the axial position of the arm 54 within the bushing 52. Tofacilitate this engatement, the arm 54 contains an annular groove 116and the bushing 52 is drilled in two places so that the pin 114, wheninserted through the drilled holes within the bushing 52, will engagethe groove 116 of the arm 54, allowing the arm 54 to rotate, butmaintaining the axial position thereof. This connection allows easyremoval of each of the U-shaped arms with its associated mechanism fromthe bushing 52 and the cart 30 by the simple removal of the U-shaped pinmembers 114, so that the U-shaped arms 28a through 28a may be removedfrom the vehicle while the vehicle is in transport to and from a dumpingsite.

Referring now to FIGS. 8 and 9, the structure of a specific portablerefuse container adapted to be engaged by the mechanism described abovewill be explained. The refuse container 18 has a truncated conical basesection 118 terminating in an annular ridge 120 at the base of an uppertruncated conical section 122. The U-shaped arm 28 is intended to engagethe base section 118 as the vehicle 10 approaches the container. Itshould be understood that the engaging arm 28 is in the position of thearm 28d shown in FIG. 2, and that the arm 28 is below the ridge 120 ofthe container 18, so that minor variances in the relative height of thevehicle 10 and the container 18 do not prevent engagement of the arm 28with the base portion 118 of the container 18. Likewise, the vehicle lidengaging means 82, which is supported from the vertical arm 80, ispositioned below a lid 124 which is hinged at a point 126 from thecontainer 18. As the portable refuse container 18 enters the U-shapedarm 28, it also engages the lever l 12, as shown in FIG. 2, and the cart30 which supports the arm 28 proceeds up the forward leg 24a of thetrack 24 raising the U-shaped arm 28 to a height which will raise thecontainer 18 from the roadway. In this position, the container 18 issupported by the U- v 6 shaped arm 28 as shown in FIG. 9, and the lidengaging means 82 partially raises the lid 124' to assure that it isfree to pivot about the point 126. As the U-shaped arm 28 proceeds alongthe upper guide 24b, as shown in FIG. 2, the guide 110, as shown inFIGS. 2 and 9, engages the rollers 64 and 68 to rotate the arm 54 aboutthe pin 50 so that the container l8 is inverted to the position shownindashed lines in FIG. 9. Whenthe container 18 is so inverted, theweight of the lid 124 causes this lid to pivot open about the point 126,and refuse within the container 118 is therefore free to fall from thecontainer 18 into the receiving bin 12 of the vehicle 10. It should beunderstood, on viewing the dotted line drawing of FIG. 9, that the droparm 76 and the arm 72 are positioned behind the container 18, and therefuse within the container 18 will therefore not fall on thismechanism.

To operate this equipment, the driver directs the vehicle along theroadway, and, by watching the arm which is presently in position 27d(FIG. 2), steers the vehicle to engage a container 18 with the arm 28d.As the vehicle moves past the position at which the container 18 waslocated, the apparatus, due to actuation of the lever 112 by thecontainer 18, moves this newly engaged container to an inverted positionabove the receiving bin 12 (position 27a, FIG. 2). The arm moves up theinclined portion 24a of the track at a rate such that its rearwardcomponent of velocity is about the same as the forward velocity of thevehicle and thus the arm moves vertically to engage the lifting offsetof the container and the container is lifted without being dragged alongthe ground. Simultaneously, the arm 28b, which is engaged with anemptied container 18, is moved from the inverted position 27a (FIG. 2)to position 27b at the rear, disengaging its container 18 in the processof moving down the leg 24c of the track 24. The arm moves down theinclined portion 24c of the track at a rate such that its rearwardcomponent of velocity is about the same as the forward velocity of thevehicle and thus the arm moves vertically down to release the containerwithout dragging it along the ground. Thus, a full container is engagedat position 27d, and an empty container is disengaged at point 27 b. Thespeed of the arm movement along the track advantageously can becoordinated with the vehicle velocity so that the container 18 which islifted onto the mechanism is replaced with an empty container 18 atsubstantially the same spot. The only personnel required for thisoperation is the vehicle 10 driver, and the vehicle may proceed, withoutstopping, along the roadway, engaging and disengaging containers as itmoves.

What is claimed is: 1. In combination, a refuse container and a refusecollection vehicle said refuse collection vehicle comprising:

an arm; means on said arm for engaging said container; means for movingsaid arm toward said container to engage said container when at astanding upright position on a roadway, without manual lifting or manualmoving of said container;

means for moving said arm from a lowered position to a raised positionfor lifting the container from said standing upright position, andinverting the container to dump its contents into the vehicle withoutmanual handling of said container; and said container comprising:

7 8 a lower body section of tapered configuration exstrengthening saidcontainer to withstand the tending for the major portion of the heightof the forces of engagement with the arm; and container for storingrefuse, and when in said a lid hinged to said upper body section andadapted standing upright position in a roadway having its toautomatically open by the force of gravity when upper, larger end at aheight above the height of said container is inverted. said arm on saidrefuse collection vehicle when said 2. In combination, a refusecontainer and a refuse vehicle is positioned adjacent said container onthe collection vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said roadway andsaid arm is in its lowered position; container has wheels mountedthereon for rolling it on an upper body section above said lower bodysection, 10 the road surface to said upright standing position.

and having a substantial height, the cross-section of 3. The combinationas described in claim 2 wherein said upper body section being at itslower end subsaid upper and lower body sections are of invertedstantially larger than the cross-section of the upper truncated conicalconfiguration. end of the lower body section; 4. In combination, arefuse container and a refuse a generally horizontal shoulder integrallyconnecting l 5 collection vehicle as defined in claim 1, said coverexthe upper end of the lower body section to the tending substantiallybeyond said upper body section. lower end of the upper body section saidshoulder UNITED :BTATES PA'IENI OFFICE CERTHFICA'WI OF CORRECTION PATENTNO. 3,923,174

DATED December 2, I975 INVENTOWS) Marcel G. Stragier it is certifiedthat error van" :1 The ODOVB-U8IIlfiU patent and thni sa d LeiiersPatent are hereby coirecied as shown hehiw Change the title to REFUSECOLLECTION VEHICLE AND CONTAINER Col. 4, line 33, after "become" insert--engaged-- Signal and Salad this twenty-third of March 1976 [SEAL] OArrest:

RUTH C. MASON C. MARSHALL DANN Arresting Officer Commissioner uj'ParenIsand Trademarks

1. In combination, a refuse container and a refuse collection vehiclesaid refuse collection vehicle comprising: an arm; means on said arm forengaging said container; means for moving said arm toward said containerto engage said container when at a standing upright position on aroadway, without manual lifting or manual moving of said container;means for moving said arm from a lowered position to a raised positionfor lifting the container from said standing upright position, andinverting the container to dump its contents into the vehicle withoutmanual handling of said container; and said container comprising: alower body section of tapered configuration extending for the majorportion of the height of the container for storing refuse, and when insaid standing upright position in a roadway having its upper, larger endat a height above the height of said arm on said refuse collectionvehicle when said vehicle is positioned adjacent said container on theroadway and said arm is in its lowered position; an upper body sectionabove said lower body section, and having a substantial height, thecross-section of said upper body section being at its lower endsubstantially larger than the cross-section of the upper end of thelower body section; a generally horizontal shoulder integrallyconnecting the upper end of the lower body section to the lower end ofthe upper body section said shoulder strengthening said container towithstand the forces of engagement with the arm; and a lid hinged tosaid upper body section and adapted to automatically open by the forceof gravity when said container is inverted.
 2. In combination, a refusecontainer and a refuse collection vehicle as defined in claim 1, whereinsaid container has wheels mounted thereon for rolling it on the roadsurface to said upright standing position.
 3. The combination asdescribed in claim 2 wherein said upper and lower body sections are ofinverted truncated conical configuration.
 4. In combination, a refusecontainer and a refuse collection vehicle as defined in claIm 1, saidcover extending substantially beyond said upper body section.